HABBALAH, The Punishers

It just doesn't sound good," I said quietly, trying to affect some tone of sympathy. It's hard to have sympathy for the weak, but it helps you control them if they think you do.

"No . . . no, he couldn't," said the banker, pushing the felt pouch back across the desk. "There's no way. Not, not my daughter."

I just shrugged, breathing out slowly as the fires of emotion leapt across the room. His eyes grew wide, his face turned red, his nostrils flared -- all good signs.

"I'll kill him," he said, breathing more and more quickly in an effort to keep up with his now-racing heart. "I'll kill them both."

"You do that, cowboy," I said, patting the felt pouch and the cold metal tool of punishment it contained.

The Habbalah are obsessed with punishing those they consider weak. In the face of massive evidence to the contrary, these demons believe with all their black hearts that they work directly for God, punishing the weak. They see themselves as the only true Choir of angel, serving God from where His hand is needed most, the abbatoir.

Resonance
The Habbalah came from the ranks of Fallen Elohim, beings of objectivity whose perspectives have been so fractured by their personal feelings that they've loosed the floodgates of emotion, allowing their feelings to influence their actions. This doesn't mean a Habbalite is any more emotional on the surface as an Elohite. His emotion is still handled coldly and rationally, he just doesn't question its origin or its influence on his perspective.

A Habbalite's resonance is for emotion, with a dark twist. Similar to an Elohim, he can tell what emotion a person is feeling at the time. He can also tell what emotion would cause someone the most harm, build that feeling up in his personal symphony to an almost uncontrollable crescendo and then let loose, doing incredible psychic damage to his victim as the subject struggles under the weight of celestial emotion.

Dissonance
Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out that way. If the demon, for whatever reason, is unable to vent the power of his symphony upon his victim, the resulting whirlwind of feeling will have its way on its maker. A Habbalite may choose to swallow these feelings and not manifest his madly raging emotions, but it causes him dissonance.

Manner and Appearance
The Habbalah have an ill-concealed disdain for the other Bands of demons -- and resent it being referred to as such. "I'm an angel," a Habbalite will tell you, "an angel, got that?" The Balseraphs love them dearly, viewing them as Hell's greatest self-deceivers.

In the corporeal realm, the Habbalah prefer to appear androgenyous. They dress their vessels in bright colors befitting the emotional impact they wish to make upon those around them. Celestially, their true natures are very clear. Mangled and mutilated, elaborately tattooed and ritually scarified, the Habbalah are broken and resentful angels of punishment, out to prove to the world that they are not the weak ones.

Game Mechanics
The Habbalah are like emotional surgeons, carving and crafting the psyches of those around them. With a successful resonance roll, the demon can inflict a powerful emotion upon his victim, or himself if he's not careful. If the demon fails his resonance roll, he must wait a number of hours equal to the failed roll's check digit before trying to conjure that emotional effect again.

In addition to suffering the emotion, the victim will also have either his Intelligence or his Precision reduced by the amount of the demon's Ethereal Forces. Both the emotion and the characteristic it cripples must be picked before the roll is made.

The feelings have variable lengths based on their intensities and the check digit of the roll -- see the five examples below. GMs and players are welcome to craft their own emotional effects.

The victim may make a Will roll to resist the intrusion from the demon's personal symphony. If the subject makes a successful Will roll with a higher check digit than that of the demon, the resonance will backfire. If the Habbalite doesn't wish to suffer under the cruel hammer of his own resonance, he can absorb the feelings back into himself at the cost of acquiring a point of dissonance.

Elohim, unaccustomed to the ravages of emotion, are at a disadvantage when dealing with the Habbalah. Their Will rolls to resist are modified negatively by the number of the demon's Celestial Forces.

Habbalah Emotional Effects
Fury
Whatever the victim is looking at when this emotion strikes him or, at the Habbalite's discretion, the current subject of conversation, makes him upset -- very upset. The victim will feel an irresistible need to strike out at the object of his anger, in swift and furious action, a number of times equal to the resonance roll's check digit or for a number of minutes equal to the demon's Corporeal Forces.

Sadness
The victim is struck to the core with a deep poignancy. For a number of hours equal to the resonance roll's check digit, he will be unwilling to move much or to speak at any length, wanting instead to crawl under into a cold bed and be left alone.

Disgust
The current subject of conversation offends the victim greatly. It is an abomination to the eyes of God, not to be suffered any longer than necessary. For a number of days equal to the resonance roll's check digit, the victim must avoid the object of his revulsion, bolting away at full tilt. If he can't avoid what offends him, he'll loudly proclaim his disgust to anyone who'll listen. If he's touched by the object of his disgust, he must make a Will roll to keep from vomiting.

Love
The victim is greatly enamored by the current subject of conversation -- or the next thing his eyes focus on, at the Habbalite's discretion. Of course, the demon must decide before making the roll.
This unresistable attraction will last a number of days equal to the resonance roll's check digit, during which he can do little but think about his love, whatever it is, and devise ways to be closer to it.

Emptiness
This is the opposite of other feelings -- the absence of all emotion. The victim will seem vacant for a number of hours equal to the resonance roll's check digit. During this time, his Agility is halved and he can only take one action for the other characters' every two.

Emptiness is the most dangerous state of emotion for a Habbalite to enter. It not only causes him dissonance, whether or not he absorbs it, but it also leaves him drained of malevolence to such a degree that there's a chance -- albeit a very low one -- that his nature will revert to divinity! If the demon makes a 111 on his dissonance roll, then his heart fills with benevolence after the period of emptiness has passed. The Habbalite, against his wishes, has become an Elohim; see "Redemption," on p. 00 for more information.


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